DOI article:
Jones, Sydney R.: Haddon Hall: an old English home
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19430#0041
HADDON HALL
DETAILS OF PLASTER CEILINGS
the decorations of the gallery is compensated for by the rare quality of
the oak, which has toned to a delicate tint of grey, giving a softness and
harmony to the walls that greatly enhance the effect of this beautiful
room. The plaster ceiling of the Long Gallery is ornamented
with moulded ribs arranged in geometrical patterns and panels, and the
family badges, modelled in relief, appear at regular intervals (p. 31).
Other interesting plaster-work is to be seen in the drawing-room, where
a deep frieze of quite unusual character decorates the walls (p. 28). It
is made up of five longitudinal bands of ornament, with narrow mould-
ings separating each band, and the patterns of the enrichment shew a
conventional rendering of cherubs’ heads, dolphins, fruit and flowers
(P- 29).
Quite different in treatment to the foregoing is the overmantel in the
state bedroom (p. 30) which is executed in modelled stucco. The sub-
ject represented is Orpheus charming the wild beasts, and the birds, and
the trees. It is a quaint composition, with the human figures clumsily
handled, but a real feeling for decoration is traceable in the other parts
of the work. Special interest attaches to this overmantel, for the particu-
lar material used suggests that it was carried out by one of a small school
of modellers in stucco who flourished in England during the sixteenth
century. These men drew their inspiration either from Italy, or from
the work of the Italian modellers that were first introduced into England
by Henry VIII, and who followed the methods devised by the ancient
Romans.
The gardens at Haddon Hall are hardly less interesting than the build-
31
DETAILS OF PLASTER CEILINGS
the decorations of the gallery is compensated for by the rare quality of
the oak, which has toned to a delicate tint of grey, giving a softness and
harmony to the walls that greatly enhance the effect of this beautiful
room. The plaster ceiling of the Long Gallery is ornamented
with moulded ribs arranged in geometrical patterns and panels, and the
family badges, modelled in relief, appear at regular intervals (p. 31).
Other interesting plaster-work is to be seen in the drawing-room, where
a deep frieze of quite unusual character decorates the walls (p. 28). It
is made up of five longitudinal bands of ornament, with narrow mould-
ings separating each band, and the patterns of the enrichment shew a
conventional rendering of cherubs’ heads, dolphins, fruit and flowers
(P- 29).
Quite different in treatment to the foregoing is the overmantel in the
state bedroom (p. 30) which is executed in modelled stucco. The sub-
ject represented is Orpheus charming the wild beasts, and the birds, and
the trees. It is a quaint composition, with the human figures clumsily
handled, but a real feeling for decoration is traceable in the other parts
of the work. Special interest attaches to this overmantel, for the particu-
lar material used suggests that it was carried out by one of a small school
of modellers in stucco who flourished in England during the sixteenth
century. These men drew their inspiration either from Italy, or from
the work of the Italian modellers that were first introduced into England
by Henry VIII, and who followed the methods devised by the ancient
Romans.
The gardens at Haddon Hall are hardly less interesting than the build-
31